In this issue:
- Conference 2023: Where the Sea Meets the Sky: What to See
- Unpacking Loyalists’ Runaway Notices. Part One, by Stephen Davidson UE
- Even in Missisquoi! Slavery in Canadian History (+ Dating a Photo)
- The Life of Major Samuel Andrews by Susan Guinan
- Book: Unfriendly to Liberty: Loyalist Networks and the Coming of the American Revolution in New York City
- Engaging the Glasgow
- Danger at the Breach
- Privateering in the American Revolution – Podcast
- Sarah Andrews, Revolutionary Partner
- Celebrating the Coronation of King Charles III: Heritage Branch
- ‘The buzz, the prattle, the crowds, the noise, the hurry’: the Coronation of George III and Queen Charlotte
- UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
- Upcoming Events
- For Members: Recorded Presentations “Matthew Elliott, unsung saviour of Upper Canada“
- From the Twittersphere and Beyond
Twitter: http://twitter.com/uelac
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2303178326/?ref=share
Conference 2023: Where the Sea Meets the Sky: What to See
Not quite sure what to see and visit during your stay for the 2023 UELAC Hybrid Conference and AGM (01-04 June 2023)?
Destination Vancouver:
While attending the 2023 UELAC Conference, “Where the Sea Meets the Sky,” why not extend your visit a few extra days (pre or post-conference) and enjoy the natural beauty and superb hospitality of the City of Vancouver?
Show Your 2023 UELAC Conference Badge for Exclusive Discounts!
Whether you have only a few hours or several days outside your commitments, Destination Vancouver has all kinds of experiences and value-added offers to fit your schedule. From cultural attractions, one-of-a-kind adventures and to only-in-Vancouver amazements, here are just a few ways you can fill your time (and your memory bank).
2023 UELAC Conference Attendees are eligible to receive exclusive discounts at participating member businesses.
Check us out at Destination Vancouver
2023 UELAC Hybrid Conference & AGM Planning Committee
Visit Where the Sea Meets the Sky for all the Conference details
Unpacking Loyalists’ Runaway Notices – Part One of Four
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Runaway ads were a regular feature in the newspapers of colonial America. Consider this notice to readers, asking them to be on the look out for a fugitive who was “about 15 years of age, his eyes appear sore, but a well looking lad; had on, when he went away, a brown cloth jacket and breeches, made of cloth, that has been worn in another garment, check shirt, brown yarn stockings, mended at the heels with woolen cloth, good shoes, with steel buckles, both broke, and an half-worn small beaver hat.”
You could be forgiven for assuming that this was an advertisement for a runaway slave. However, the subject of the ad was neither a slave nor a person of African descent. The notice referred to one Thomas Hines, “an English servant boy” who had runaway from Samuel Purviance Jr. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A reward of four dollars was offered for Hines’ capture and return.
Although enslaved Blacks were the subjects of the majority of runaway ads, the next largest category of those making a dash for freedom were young men who were indentured servants or who were apprenticed to local craftsman.
A sampling of runaway servant ads from the middle colonies reveals an interesting aspect of pre-revolutionary life, shedding light on servants’ desires to be free. The escapees ranged in age from 15 to 45, and hailed from France, Spain, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the German States and the Thirteen Colonies. Apprenticeships, indentured servanthood, and slavery were all part of the economic landscape of the American colonies during the 18th century – and they would later be part of the Canadian landscape as established by its Loyalist settlers.
Samuel Purviance Jr, the master cited in the 1774 ad above, sided with the Patriots during the American Revolution. But those who sided with Britain during the war also placed ads for runaway servants. In the same year that Thomas Hines made a break for freedom, Isaac Bonnell (Bonel/Bunnell) offered a four pound reward to the person who could “secure” his fugitive indentured servant.
At the time he placed his notice, Bonnell was the high sheriff of Middlesex County, New Jersey and a good friend of the colony’s royalist governor, William Franklin. Within two years’ time, George Washington ordered the arrest of Bonnell. He was initially put under house arrest in Trenton, New Jersey, but was given permission to move to Staten Island within British lines. He served the crown as a barrack master. In September of 1780, his wife Grace died in New York City and was buried in the graveyard of Trinity Anglican Church.
Bonnell’s loss of an indentured servant six years earlier was nowhere near as tragic for him. Rather than being mournful, he may have penned the notice in anger at his servant’s ingratitude. The ad he placed for the capture of Benjamin McDonald shows how well he knew his “indented servant man”. It contains more details about McDonald’s character and appearance than we have for Bonnell himself.
According to the Loyalist’s notice, Benjamin McDonald was of mixed Indigenous and European parentage. He was nicknamed “Indian Ben”. A healthy “well made fellow” who was over six feet high, McDonald wore his long black hair “tied behind”. Bonnell surmised that McDonald might cut off his hair to disguise himself. He also believed that his servant might head for Long Island.
As no picture could accompany a runaway ad of this era, the notice had to contain enough details for the newspaper’s readers to identify McDonald if they encountered him. When he escaped the Bonnell home, McDonald was wearing “an old blue coat and olive coloured jacket, an old pair of leather breeches, an old beaver hat, a pair of blue yarn stockings and a new {osnaburg} shirt.” (The latter material is a coarse linen or cotton usually used for furnishings and sacks.)
Another clue to McDonald’s identity was the fact that he had stolen a “large skiff newly trimmed”. There was a reward of two dollars for the skiff’s return in addition to the reward for the indentured servant. McDonald was also known to be “much addicted to strong drink”.
As was typical for any ad for a runaway servant or slave, Bonnell’s notice contained the warning that “all masters of vessels and others are strictly forbid to carry off, conceal or harbour the said servant, as they will answer it at their peril.”
Benjamin McDonald’s fate is unknown. Bonnell, however, became a refugee at the end of the American Revolution. On October 15, 1783, the 47 year-old sailed for Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia aboard the Betsey, and settled in nearby Digby. On this journey, he served as an escort for a 22 year-old Black Loyalist named John Jackson.
Bonnell’s three adult children remained in New Jersey, but his son William Franklin Bonnell later came to the Maritimes. As his New Jersey property had been confiscated by his Patriot neighbours, Isaac had to begin life with a clean slate. He bought a lot of land and a log cabin “with windows of greased paper” for 50 guineas, and became a merchant. By 1786, he had been made a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
There are no records to indicate that Bonnell ever had an indentured servant in Nova Scotia. However, according to historians Karolyn Frost and David States, Bonnell had connections to the last bill of sale for an enslaved African in Nova Scotia. In 1804, an eight-year old girl named Percilla was sold to a William Robertson for £17. Percilla had once been the property of three others, one of whom was Isaac Bonnell.
Bonnell lived for 20 more years, dying at age 70 on November 7, 1806. His death was reported in the Saint John Gazette, a newspaper that would have readers in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Bonnell’s life had newspaper notices as its bookends. A span of 32 years separated the runaway ad that he placed in a colonial newspaper in 1774 and the appearance of his death notice in a New Brunswick paper in 1806.
Other Loyalists also had their names recorded in runaway ads. Their stories and those of their fugitive servants will be featured in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.
Even in Missisquoi! Slavery in Canadian History
Living as we do, shoulder to shoulder, with our flamboyant American neighbours, it seems we Canadians always have one ear tuned to the south. Ask a Canadian what he knows about Black history, for example, and chances are that he’ll point reflexively at Uncle Sam : plantation slave owners and northern abolitionists, the civil rights movement and the Ku Klux Klan, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X – most of us are reasonably fluent in this basic vocabulary of Black history – in America! The apparently lesser-known fact remains though, that in Canada slavery was alive and well from the late 17th century until its final prohibition in 1833.
For practical reasons, both France and Britain left the institution of slavery intact in their distant colonies long after having banned it in their homelands. Read more
Dating a Photo
See page two of the above article which gives some tips on dating photos, hair styles for example.
thanks to Marg Carter UE Manitoba Branch for submitting this article.
The Life of Major Samuel Andrews by Susan Guinan
Major Samuel Andrews was born about 1750 most likely in or around Bladen County, North Carolina. His parents were Samuel and Martha (possibly Galbraith) Andrews. Bladen County was settled by Highland Scottish immigrants many who ended up siding with the Loyalists in the Revolutionary War.
On 18 Nov 1771, at the age of 21, Samuel purchased 200 acres “on the upper side of Saddle Tree Swamp.” Saddle Tree Swamp was along the backwaters of Drowning Creek, the former name for the Lumber River.
Based on the ages of the Andrews’ children, one can surmise that Samuel probably married in the early to mid-1770’s. His wife, was Mary Musselwhite (1759-1851). Their first son, John, was born in 1776 in Bladen County. The inscription on John’s headstone at Tusket Lakes Cemetery, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia reads, “In memory of JOHN ANDREWS Born in North Carolina Nov.9, 1776. Died Nov.25, 1862.”
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, Samuel joined under General McDonald at Cross Creek, Bladen County and was commissioned as a Lieutenant. After the defeat at Moore’s Creek on 27 Feb 1776 he managed to escape but was eventually captured and imprisoned. On 1 Oct 1776 , “Samuel Andrews and Thomas Kersey, who were committed to a Gaol in Halifax, were brought before this Board, and discharged on taking the State Oath and entering into recognizance for their appearance at next Congress.”
In 1780 Samuel joined forces under General Cornwallis.
In 1781 Samuel was appointed as a Major of the Great Swamp Company, a division of The Royal North Carolina Militia of Bladen County under One-Eyed Hector McNeill. Samuel likely participated in The Battle of Raft Swamp which occurred on October 15, 1781 between about 600 Tories and 1400 Whigs.”
Samuel moved to East Florida.
Major Samuel Andrews left Saint Augustine and by July, 1785 he was in Shelburne where he was pressing his claims to the commissioners for compensation.
Samuel Andrews, like many Loyalists, arrived in Nova Scotia with slaves. The first court case involving Major Samuel Andrews appears in the Shelburne records in 1785 when a Black man named James Singletory, whom he had brought from Saint Augustine “‘applied to James McEwen Esq [according to Benjamin Marston, McEwen was a justice of the peace], praying he might be discharged from the service’ of Samuel Andrews.” Andrews claimed James “as his slave.” He produced a pass signed by the commissary of claims of Charleston that Andrews had paid £50 for James, his wife, and child.
On 5 April 1799 at the Tusket Courthouse Samuel prepared his will. Probate was granted on 20 September 1807.28 The date of his death is unknown but it is assumed it occurred some time after October 1806.
See Samuel’s entry in the Loyalist Directory and read The Life of Major Samuel Andrews by Susan Guinan.
Book: Unfriendly to Liberty: Loyalist Networks and the Coming of the American Revolution in New York City
By Christopher F. Minty UELAC Scholship recipient
In Unfriendly to Liberty, Christopher F. Minty explores the origins of loyalism in New York City between 1768 and 1776, and revises our understanding of the coming of the American Revolution.
Through detailed analyses of those who became loyalists, Minty argues that would-be loyalists came together long before Lexington and Concord to form an organized, politically motivated, and inclusive political group that was centered around the DeLancey faction. Following the DeLanceys’ election to the New York Assembly in 1768, these men, elite and nonelite, championed an inclusive political economy that advanced the public good, and they strongly protested Parliament’s reorientation of the British Empire.
For New York loyalists, it was local politics, factions, institutions, and behaviors that governed their political activities in the build up to the American Revolution. By focusing on political culture, organization, and patterns of allegiance, Unfriendly to Liberty shows how the contending allegiances of loyalists and patriots were all but locked in place by 1775 when British troops marched out of Boston to seize caches of weapons in neighboring villages.
Indeed, local political alignments that were formed in the imperial crises of the 1760s and 1770s provided a critical platform for the divide between loyalists and patriots in New York City. Political and social disputes coming out of the Seven Years’ War, more than republican radicalization in the 1770s, forged the united force that would make New York City a center of loyalism throughout the American Revolution.
Engaging the Glasgow
by Eric Sterner 9 May 2023 Journal of the American Revolution
On April 18, 1776 Captain Tyringham Howe of His Majesty’s Ship Glasgow arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Two weeks prior, the twenty-gun sloop had engaged a task force from the Continental Navy and given better than she received. Vice Admiral Molyneux Shuldham, who briefly commanded Royal Navy in American waters, expected Glasgow to be carrying dispatches from himself and Gen. William Howe to New York and then southward. Thus, her appearance came as a surprise.
On March 17, Glasgow cruised off Newport, Rhode Island, where Captain Howe observed the American rebels breaking ground on new fortifications. He passed up Narragansett bay and anchored off the eastern side of Prudence Island, where Glasgow joined with Rose, Swan, Bolton, three armed tenders, and a large transport to constitute a small squadron. The Royal Navy ship Nautilus arrived on March 30 with orders for Glasgow to carry dispatches south.
Far to the south, the Continental Navy’s first fleet plodded northward from the Bahamas after a successful raid on Nassau. Created in part do clear the coasts of British ships like the Glasgow, the American commander, Commodore Esek Hopkins, had instead raided New Providence. Read more…
Danger at the Breach
by Doug MacIntyre 11 May 2023 Journal of the American Revolution
American Patriots won a pivotal victory at Charlestown, South Carolina, on June 28, 1776, six days before the Declaration of Independence. The Battle of Sullivan’s Island was the Patriots’ first defeat of a joint attack by the British army and navy and one of their most decisive victories of the entire war. The astonishing win changed the course of the revolution as the British suspended their long-planned Southern strategy, allowing the South to remain relatively calm under Patriot control for the next three years.
Patriots had taken over the government of South Carolina and its wealthy capital Charlestown in 1775. In early June 1776, thousands of people in America’s fourth largest city witnessed a terrifying spectacle when an intimidating British force arrived offshore in more than fifty ships to begin restoring Crown rule. The expedition included a Royal Navy squadron with nine ships of war commanded by Commodore Sir Peter Parker and a British army commanded by Maj. Gen. Henry Clinton. Parker and Clinton sought a quick victory to show support for Loyalists and reestablish the Crown’s presence in the South before joining the British campaign to capture New York and isolate New England. They planned to secure Sullivan’s Island at the entrance to the busy harbor and leave two warships with a garrison of soldiers on the island to control the seaport until the British could return to reclaim all of Charlestown and South Carolina. Commodore Parker and General Clinton developed a two-pronged strategy to capture Sullivan’s Island: the navy would bombard an unfinished fort of palmetto logs and sand, and the army would assault the fort’s vulnerable rear by land. Read more…
Privateering in the American Revolution – Podcast
Ben Franklin’s World: about 10 May 2023
Eric Jay Dolin joins us to explore the early American world of privateers and privateering using details from his latest book, Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution.
During our exploration, Eric reveals what privateering was and how it differed from piracy; Why the American revolutionaries turned so quickly to privateering as a military option during the American Revolution; And how privateers helped the United States win its independence. Listen in…
Sarah Andrews, Revolutionary Partner
by Charmian Kenner 1 May 2023 All Things Georgian
How did a young woman from Yorkshire meet a Venezuelan revolutionary in the year 1800? Sarah Andrews was born in 1774 in the East Yorkshire town of Market Weighton, while Francisco de Miranda began his life thousands of miles away in Caracas, Venezuela. Yet they were to become partners, and their London home served as a British headquarters for the struggle to liberate Latin America from Spanish rule.
There are monuments to Francisco de Miranda throughout Latin America. But we do not even have a picture of Sarah Andrews, and her grave in Kensal Green cemetery was unmarked and neglected until found by a descendant four generations later. Today her gravestone, placed by the Venezuelan government in 2013, commemorates Sarah as ‘a supporter of revolutionaries who changed the world’.
My book Revolutionary Partners: Sarah Andrews and British Campaigners for Latin American Independence tells Sarah’s story through letters she wrote to Francisco de Miranda when he was away fighting in Venezuela from 1805-1807, while she held the fort in London and raised their two sons Leander and Francisco. Sarah emerges as a resourceful activist, combining politics and motherhood in the face of poverty and discrimination. But how did she become involved in the Latin American cause? Read more…
Celebrating the Coronation of King Charles III: Heritage Branch
Your MajestyHeritage Branch, which is the Montreal chapter of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada (the “UELAC”), hereby coveys to Your Majesty, as well as to Her Majesty Queen Camilla, heart congratulations, good wishes and prayers on the occasion of your forthcoming coronation. (Read letter)
Good afternoon and welcome to you all.
I am Robert Wilkins, the President of Heritage Branch, which is the Montreal chapter of The United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada, the sponsor of this Pre-Coronation Celebration.
First, I must thank the Macdonald Stewart Foundation and its Executive Director, Major Thomas Leslie, for allowing the use of this beautiful mansion for our Celebration.
It is with great joy that we greet our guest of honour, the Honourable J. Michel Doyon, Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, His Majesty’s official representative in our Province. His Honour has travelled from Quebec City to join us today and deliver a special message on this historic occasion. (Read welcome and introduction)See photo of the Honourable J. Michel Doyon, Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, with Maura McKeon and Robert Wilkins UE of Heritage Branch
On Friday, May 5, Heritage Branch-Montreal hosted a “Pre-Coronation Celebration” for members of the Branch and of the Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch. Also in attendance were representatives of various local groups and associations, including the St. Andrew’s Society of Montreal, the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society, the Royal Commonwealth Society, the Monarchist League of Canada, the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network, the 78th Fraser Highlanders Regiment, the Black Watch Regiment, and many personal friends who value Canada’s constitutional monarchy..
The Celebration took the form of wine-and-cheese party, from 5 to 8 p.m., held at the Maison Forget, one of the remaining 19th century mansions of Montreal’s famous “Golden Square Mile”, on Sherbrooke Street West in the downtown area of the city. The building now belongs to the Macdonald-Stewart Foundation, whose Executive Director, Mr. (also Major) Thomas Leslie, made us most welcome. (Read the report of the celebration by Robert Wilkins UE, President, Heritage Branch, UELAC)
‘The buzz, the prattle, the crowds, the noise, the hurry’: the Coronation of George III and Queen Charlotte
The History of [UK] Parilament, 4 May 2023
Royal celebrations in the Georgian period were renowned for their mixture of stately formality and farcical mix-ups. In the third of our series on 18th-century coronations, we turn to that of George III in the late summer of 1761, which proved no exception, as Dr Robin Eagles points out.
Shortly after 10 pm on 22 September 1761 the doors of Westminster Hall were flung open so the crowds waiting outside could pour in and snaffle what was left of the coronation banquet. Just as had happened at the previous coronation in 1727, pretty much everything was up for grabs and anything not screwed to the floor was liable to be carried off. By then all the principal participants had withdrawn, no doubt exhausted, after their long 12-hour day.. Read more…
UELAC Loyalist Directory: New Contributions
Entries which have been added, or revised, this week, with thanks:
- Jo Ann Tuskin on behalf of Raymond and Cale McCurdy has submitted information about Christopher Harrison UEL. He enlisted at Brunswick, New Jersey and served as Conductor of Stores and Wagon Master in the Quarter Master General’s Department for the entire war. He settled in the County of Annapolis NS but moved to York Mills, Upper Canada in 1799. Two proven lines of descent are through two different children of Christopher.
- Information about Edward Collard has been contributed by Kathy McIlwaine. From New Jersey, Edward served in the New Jersey Volunteers. He resettled in 1788 in Queensbury Parish, NB; then in 1797 moved to Carleton, NB; and finally in 1806 migrated in Middleton, London District, Upper Canada. He and spouse Sarah, maiden name unknown, had several children. Daughter Hannah was born in either 1806 or 1807 in Lower Canada (census and death records vary) which means she was likely born along the journey from New Brunswick.
If you are willing to submit some information, send a note to loyalist.trails@uelac.org All help is appreciated. …doug
The American Revolution Institute: On Tea, Taxes, and World History: The British East India Company and the Origins of the American Revolution May 24, 2023 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
On May 10, 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, which instituted a tax of three cents per pound on all British tea sold in America. The act effectively granted a monopoly on the sale of tea in the American colonies to the British East India Company, which was looking to reduce its excessive stores of tea and relieve its financial burdens. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Tea Act’s passage, James Vaughn, a historian of the British Empire at the University of Chicago, examines the developments in Britain, British North America, and South Asia leading to the passage of the act, and discusses why a relatively mundane piece of parliamentary legislation renewed the imperial crisis and led to the outbreak of the American Revolution. Details and registration
For Members: Recorded Presentations
Presentations on Demand (member log-in required)
Hamilton Branch: “Matthew Elliott, unsung saviour of Upper Canada”
Roy Winders presentation to Hamilton Branch on Apr. 20, 2023
Matthew Elliott (c. 1739 – May 7, 1814) was an Irish-born merchant, farmer, colonial official, politician and military officer. He was active in British North America during and after the era of the American Revolution. Elliott held a key position in Anglo-Indian affairs during the time period.
Elliott came to America in 1761 and settled in Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. As a trader in western Pennsylvania and Ohio in the 1760s and 1770s, and as a captain in the British Indian Department during the Revolution.
In 1778 Elliott, along with Alexander McKee and Simon Girty fled to Detroit. He served as a scout on Henry Hamilton’s expedition to Vincennes. For the remainder of the Revolution Elliott served as a British Indian agent.
After the Revolution, Elliott established himself on a farm at what became Amherstburg, Ontario in Upper Canada.
For Roy Winders, there is no better hobby than donning his red woolen jacket and assuming the persona of the much-revered Captain Winders. An historical re-enactor with 30 years experience, Winders and his fellow re-enactors with Col. Elliott’s Company recreate the daily lives of those who served in His Majesty’s Indian Department. They use the equipment of 1812, wear the clothing of the time period, cook over open fires and conduct skirmishes and live fire re-enactments.
From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Kew Palace is the smallest of the British royal palaces. It dates from the 17thC and became a royal residence from 1720s. It was where George III lived during his period of mental illness. His wife, Queen Charlotte, died there in 1818.
- The Coronation Chair was carved from oak between 1297 and 1300 by the carpenter Walter of Durham – the oldest dated piece of English furniture made by a known artist. Most of the graffiti on the chair is by Westminster schoolboys and visitors in the 18th and 19th centuries.
- Did you know that a piece of Florence Nightingale’s dress is in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach? The King will travel from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey in this carriage which celebrates 100s of years of history, incorporating artefacts – including a fragment of Florence’s dress!
- On the left, the glove Elizabeth I wore at her Westminster Abbey coronation on 15 January 1559, via Dents Museum Collection. On the right, the glove worn by Elizabeth II at the ceremony on 2 June 1953, via the Glove Collection Trust.
- Townsends
- Food That Time Forgot: Ships Biscuits
- This week in History
- 10 May 1773. The Tea Act is formally adopted in Parliament. East India Company tea would be duty free when entering England from China. 3 pence/lb. duty was applied when entering America. The revenue raised would pay the salaries of royally appointed officials.
- 9 May 1775 Benedict Arnold unsuccessfully challenges Ethan Allen’s right to lead the expedition to Fort Ticonderoga.
- 10 May 1775 Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold take Ft Ticonderoga in New-York, securing cannon for patriot forces.
- 12 May 1775, Seth Warner and fifty Green Mountain Boys seized Crown Point, a fire-damaged fortification on Lake Champlain garrisoned by nine British soldiers plus ten women and children. Read more…
- 6 May 1776 Governor of Rhode-Island sends Washington proclamation discharging inhabitants’ allegiance to the Crown.
- 7 May 1776 Congress takes measures to protect Philadelphia from threat of two British warships on Delaware River.
- 8 May 1776 Patriots attack British warships Roebuck & Liverpool on the Delaware River; minimal damage to both sides.
- 10 May 1776. Rev. Henry Caner of King’s Chapel to London “I am now at Halifax with my daughter & servant, but without any means of support.” Other Anglican clerics had “comfortable provision” as military chaplains, but Caner felt he was too old.
- 11 May 1776 Washington suggests raising companies of Germans to sow discontent among England’s Hessian troops.
- 8 May 1778, Gen. Henry Clinton replaced Gen. Sir William Howe as commander of the British forces in North America, with orders to focus on retaking colonies to the South while holding New York & Newport.
- 12 May 1780 Charles-Town, South-Carolina falls to British General Clinton, marking terrible defeat for rebel forces.
- Clothing and Related:
- A doll dressed in a mantua, made in England in 1759 by 18-year-old Laetitia Clark. Throughout her lifetime she dressed 13 dolls in miniature fashionable outfits of the time period using fabric from her own clothes.
- 18th Century dress, Robe a l’anglaise of silk needlework on cotton; linen bodice and sleeve linings. English, c.1780
- 18th Century transitional dress, the rising waistline making way for the empire lined gowns of the Regency, c.1795
- 18th Century dresses, two Robe à la Françaises. In China the colour yellow was associated with the Emperor, as the fashion for chinoiserie grew in popularity so did the colour within fashion, c.1775
- 18th Century dress, robe à la française in near perfect condition & without alterations. The button-closing front of the bodice is a development of the last half of the eighteenth century. c.1775, French
- Detail of an 18th Century dress, Sacque gown a la Piedmontese, c.1780, possibly Italian, plain cream ribbed silk, metallic & silk embroidery.
- 18th Century Court Mantua elaborately brocaded with a pattern of narrow stripes, a vertical undulating ribbon of leaves & ears of corn alternating with floral sprays c.1770. Originally of the Fitzwilliam and Wentworth Dynasty, sold @bonhams1793
in 2006 for £78K - 18th Century men’s Court coat, rich green velvet with silk embroidered flowers & foliage, French, c.1790
- 18th Century men’s waistcoat, mauve striped silk with silk & metallic thread embroidery, metal beads, silk satin, printed & painted, 1790’s
- Miscellaneous
- A Remarkable Collection of Watches being auctioned… I am not interested in the many 19th and 20th century watches offered for sale, all in superb condition, but there are a few amazing watches from the 18th century which really caught my attention. Read more…
Published by the UELAC
If you do not now receive this free newsletter directly but would like to, you can subscribe here.